Introduction Email Marketing Software For Nonprofits
Email marketing is indeed critical For any small business to get right. Email Marketing Software For Nonprofits
And for good reason. Implemented Properly, it will certainly become the main tool in your company for generating relationships and creating sales.
In accordance with Capterra, the Normal yield on $1 spent on email marketing is 44.25!
This is why you should take your Time and invest in a good email marketing software for your business.
If you are a blogger, the Consensus autoresponder of choice was Aweber or MailChimp. Sign up to some email list, and there was a good chance they had been using one of those two.
For Quite a While, the standard Characteristic collection of Aweber worked perfectly fine. All entrepreneurs needed it to perform was reliably send emails out and integrate with their favorite tools such as LeadPages and Click Funnels.
Nowadays however, email marketing automation has Become increasingly more important.
By Way of Example, Infusionsoft used To function as go-to agency for unsigned bloggers and businesses wanting more innovative email automation abilities.
The Issue with Infusionsoft Though is that it is a hugely complex system to learn. Couple that with a hefty price tag and an initial setup cost put it out of reach for most bloggers.
But things are changing for the Better and ConvertKit has emerged as one of the very popular email services which can provide marketing automations without the massive cost.
ConvertKit Disadvantages
– Can not create super advanced marketing automations.
– Limited customization of kinds.
– Difficult to use email templates.
– Split testing restricted to subject lines just.
– Does not work well for live webinars or events.
– No free trial.
ConvertKit Benefits
– Slick, intuitive interface.
– Works great with incorporating content upgrades to your site.
– Tag-based (versus list based like MailChimp)
– Really fine visual automation editor.
– They do not charge you for copy subscribers.
– Can add conditional content with tags in mails.
– Easily auto darkening broadcasts into un-opens.
– Automatic double opt-in for lead magnets.
– 365 days a year, 24 hours per day support through live chat and email.
– A solid number of integrations.
– Very nice reporting.
– Constantly being updated with new features.
Click here to begin your free trial of ConvertKit.
Description of ConvertKit
ConvertKit is an email Service provider that is specifically marketed towards bloggers, podcasters, and other businesses that are building crowds.
It had been started by Nathan Barry who I was a fan of, being a regular reader of the blog.
For a brief moment, it was Rebranded to Seva, till they reverted back into ConvertKit.
What’s intriguing about ConvertKit is how transparent Nathan is about the whole procedure of taking ConvertKit from scratch to earning $30k per month at 2015. Now in 2018, they have 19,500 active customers and doing over $1 million per month.
We are essentially getting a front Row seat on his journey to creating a successful SaaS merchandise. It’s pretty cool because we get to see about both the highs and the lows.
Even if you don’t end up using ConvertKit, his blog posts are always fascinating and I recommend giving Nathan a follow.Email Marketing Software For Nonprofits
What isn’t So good about ConvertKit
Bad Part #1: Restricted set of triggers/actions for advanced automations
Here are the causes available on ConvertKit.
Compare this with ActiveCampaign.
This means you can’t really construct The exact same type of complex automations that you can in ActiveCampaign or Drip.
You also won’t get advanced Features in ConvertKit like page tracking and lead scoring.
And that I miss having list Administration Activities like unsubscribing people so that you may do regular list hygiene.
Poor Part #2: Restricted A/B Testing
A/B testing is also a very important Feature to have for any email services. Doing this regularly will help you better your conversion and open rates.
ConvertKit allows you to split Examine your subject lines such as this:
Which is useful, for sure.
But there’s no way to divide test For things such as delivery time, email body material, or automations.
Bad Part #3: Not a ton of customization choices for forms and templates
I do like the types which ConvertKit provides. They’re nice and clean.
But the kind editor is quite Limited. Besides color, there is not much you can alter. By way of example, there’s no way to alter the font for some of the text.
Unless you are willing to add in Your own CSS.
This is not a big deal for me personally, as I utilize Thrive Leads for my own forms. However, for people who do not utilize a third party instrument, the absence of customization could be an issue.
Poor Part #4: No email templates
I don’t personally send out email Newsletter type mails, so this is not that big a deal with me personally.
However, I know some companies do need This, which is why MailChimp is still common.
ConvertKit includes a few email Templates, however, the process of using them is very dull. You will need to muck about with HTML and CSS which not everybody wants to perform.
So you will want to Appear elsewhere If this is exactly what you need.
Some of The Best Features
Cool Feature #1: Seamless Visual Automation Editor
I really like the ConvertKit’s Visual automation editor. It is a joy to use, especially when you compare it to a number of the other automation editors out there.
That is because ConvertKit makes Editing each step in your automation workflow seamless.
Let us say one of those steps in Your automation is sending an emailaddress. With other services, editing the email will take you from the automation editor and into a separate email editor page. This may allow you to eliminate context of what you were doing.
With ConvertKit, what’s Done within the automation editor . So clicking on an email step will allow you to edit it inline. And you can also edit your forms in precisely the exact same manner.
It is a Fantastic experience and it Sets other automation editors to pity.
Cool Characteristic #2: Straightforward Segmentation within emails
Another Helpful feature is ConvertKit’s capacity to segment individual emails with conditional tags.
So let’s say you wanted to make One email to a list, however, add a bonus coupon to your VIP customers. You can do this in ConvertKit such as this:
Pretty cool, right?
The syntax might look a little Odd to non-techies and you also may have difficulty remembering what to type when you go to use it.
To help with this, you can click On the Personalize menu in the editor toolbar and then click the Subscriber’s labels menu item. ConvertKit will then insert the appropriate code snippet template straight into your email.
All you need to do is alter to Your tag, and update the content for the two branches.
Cool Characteristic #3: Auto resend broadcasts to un-opens
Every time you send out a Broadcast email, a certain percentage of people won’t open it. Hubspot claims advertising and marketing emails only get 25% email open prices.
Perhaps you did not write a good Headline, or else they had been too busy at the time to take a look.
ConvertKit includes a fantastic feature Where you can resend your air to the people who did not open it the first time.
This is available in stats page, Where you’ll see a button called Resend to Unopens.
Pressing it will allow you to Re-send your email again, where you’re able to make changes to your Subject Line should you desire.
I love this because you are able to Maximize the eyeballs you get for every single broadcast you ship out.
Cool Feature #4: Lead Magnet Double Opt-in
There are debates everywhere About whether you should use double breasted vs single opt-in.
The main Reason you need Double opt-in is the fact that it is going to improve your email list quality. But the principal argument against is the extra measure will hurt your conversions.
All this is true.
However, if you are using lead Magnets, then ConvertKit can manage double opt-in for you automatically like this.
After the user clicks the downloading Button to get their lead magnet, they are automatically opted in. So you get the best of both worlds! Email Marketing Software For Nonprofits
Click here to begin your free trial of ConvertKit.
Details of ConvertKit
ConvertKit Includes 5 major building blocks. Let us take a quick look at each.
Types
Forms are how you get readers Into your account. ConvertKit allows you to produce both forms and landing pages.
Forms may be embedded on any page Of your site, or via a typical modal popup. Landing pages are its own dedicated webpage hosted on ConvertKit’s servers or your own site with a WordPress plugin.
There are 3 main styles to choose From for regular forms. Full, Minimal, and Clean.
As Stated above, the kind Editor does not give you many customization options, even though the built-in styles have a nice clean look to them.
Landing pages also only have 3 Styles to select from and the same limited customization choices.
Automations
To tie everything together, let us Discuss ConvertKit’s automations.
In ConvertKit, subscribers can Enter an automation in 4 different ways.
Throughout a form, getting labeled, Possessing a custom area updated, or from a purchase.
From there, you can add an Event, Action or Condition.
Actions are the simplest to understand. The most common actions are incorporating a subscriber to one of your email strings, either remove or add a tag, setting a customized area, or introducing a delay.
Requirements Allow You to branch your Automation based on a label or custom area.
So you could use branching to Have your VIP customers return 1 route and your non-VIPs go right down a separate path like this:
Last, you have Events, which pull your contributor Forward to the next step in the automation once an event occurs.
Let’s say one of the readers Is on day 2 of the 5 part email sequence, which will be trying to get them to buy your product.
You can add an event to your Automation using the Insert tag occasion. If on day 2, the contributor purchases your product (and you label them as a client ), it is going to pull them from the current email sequence they had been in.
That is useful because you won’t Annoy them with the previous 3 mails on your sequence (by requesting them to purchase ) because they’re now a customer of yours.
ConvertKit’s automation editor is Extremely fast and simple to use. As mentioned previously, I love the capability to seamlessly edit forms and emails directly within the editor itself.
It makes for a much greater Expertise when creating new automations.
Broadcasts
Sending one-off emails in ConvertKit is simple.
Since there are no lists in ConvertKit, if you send a broadcast email you will want to utilize their filter mechanism to target who you’ll be sending your broadcast to.
You will most often use the Subscribed to filter where you Can segment your air to specific forms, sequences, tags or products.
The email editor is just your Standard HTML email editor, with a couple extra options. Click the A/B button near the topic line and you’re able to initiate a split test between a few different headlines.
The customization button may be Used to enter in merge tags into your email or to use the in-email label segmentation I talked about above.{ Email Marketing Software For Nonprofits
Sequences
Sequences are where you can Create a string of emails that get delivered to your subscribers at a predefined schedule of your choice.
On the left, you’ll see all the Mails on your show along with when they’ll be sent out. You can drag emails around on the left to quickly change the order they are sent.
To the right, you’ll see exactly the same Email editor since you possibly get for Broadcasts. So the same characteristics apply, except you can not split test subject lines here.
Subscribers
Unlike MailChimp or Aweber, ConvertKit is label and not list predicated. This means that you have a single database of readers in your ConvertKit account.
To group subscribers together, You are able to use tags or create segments. With segments, you can do things like developing a set of contacts which subscribed before a particular date.
Or group readers by location Or any custom field you make.
ConvertKit also enables you to drill Down into any particular subscriber you have. You can see things like what sequences they’re on, what emails you have sent them, and if you are performing e-commerce, what goods they have purchased from you.
What Else Is there to know?
How is Their support?
ConvertKit’s support is good from My experience. While there is no telephone service like Aweber has, they provide email and live chat 365 days per year, 24 hours a day.
Email response time ranges from 2-3 hours in my experience. But live chat is usually pretty responsive.
Can they Have an active community?
They have a Facebook group Known as The ConvertKit Family. It currently has 6k members and averages approximately 6 articles each day.
It’s a good place to get your Questions answered by additional ConvertKit users.
What Integrations do they offer?
ConvertKit includes a ton of third-party integrations. I currently count 86 at the time of this review, including with tools such as LeadPages, ClickFunnels, SamCart, and Shopify.
You can find the full list Of all ConvertKit integrations here.
How Good is ConvertKit for direct magnets?
ConvertKit is awesome for lead magnets. Not only can it host your lead magnets to you, the automatic double breasted is a fantastic feature.
How Great is ConvertKit for eCommerce?
ConvertKit is getting quite a little better when it comes to eCommerce. They simply launched a new feature that’s going to permit you to monitor every purchase made by a subscriber.
Why is this cool is that you Can then begin automations based on a purchase.
It’s only working together with Shopify and Teachable at The second, but that has a great deal of potential when they get things working with all e-commerce integrations.
Can it Handle live webinars or events?
To Manage live events and Webinars, you need to be able to send mails out at a specific date and time. It is normal for webinars to send multiple emails at particular times before it begins, for example 24 hours 8 hours 10 minutes before, etc..
ConvertKit can handle live events And webinars through broadcasts just. Which isn’t very suitable because then you have to schedule all of your emails manually.
It would be preferable if ConvertKit gave you a way to send mails at a specific date and time. But that is currently impossible through sequences or automations.
Can they Have an affiliate program?
Yes, ConvertKit offers the Standard recurring commissions as part of its affiliate application. The affiliate program can be hosted on Ambassador.
Alexis is the affiliate Director, and she does a nice job of keeping you updated about the various promotions they’re running.
Who’s Switching over to ConvertKit?
ConvertKit has been rising by Leaps and bounds, and I’m reading about people switching over to ConvertKit every day.
Here are a Couple of examples of Bloggers who have switched over to ConvertKit in their old email service:
– Why I Switched To ConvertKit: The Unofficial Definitive Review
– Why I Switched From Aweber To ConvertKit
– 10 Reasons Why I Switched From Aweber into ConvertKit
ConvertKit Vs MailChimp
MailChimp has a couple of Things going for this versus ConvertKit. It is cheaper, and it’s better email templates.
However, for everything else, ConvertKit certainly wins out. Especially when you compare MailChimp’s crappy automation editor versus the beautiful ConvertKit one.
Plus ConvertKit has tags that Gives you much better flexibility for segmenting your readers. MailChimp is very much lacking there.
ConvertKit Vs Aweber
The only reason I’d Recommend Aweber versus ConvertKit is if you are purely doing affiliate marketing/CPA offers. Then, it may be more difficult to get acceptance on ConvertKit, and Aweber are your very best option.
Aweber is also marginally cheaper Than ConvertKit.
Otherwise, ConvertKit is better Compared to Aweber at pretty much everything else, such as automations.
ConvertKit Vs ActiveCampaign
This is a much harder comparison. ActiveCampaign is a superb email marketing software, with tons of features for power users. You are able to do more with its automations, and it’s better split testing capabilities.
Price wise, it is cheaper than ConvertKit at lower subscriber amounts, but it gets more expensive as you include more and more contacts.
But ConvertKit is easier to use, With a nicer and crisper interface.
That one you should pick depends On your organization requirements. Would you like something which just works for regular email marketing activities, without a ton of work? Afterward ConvertKit could make a fantastic choice.
But if you need more advanced or Complex automations, then ActiveCampaign is the top thing to do.
Pricing
ConvertKit’s uses the same tiered Pricing model as many other email services perform. Hence the purchase price goes up the more readers you have.
In comparison to its rivals, ConvertKit’s pricing comes out at the middle of the pack at lesser subscriber levels.
But as you get past 10,000 Subscribers and beyond, ConvertKit actually does not jump up as much in price as a number of the remainder.
Costs below are if you pay Monthly, but should you pre-pay annual, you receive 2 months of service free.
ConvertKit does not normally Offer a free trial. But occasionally for promotions that are different, you may notice them promoting a 30-day trial.
I have never seen some ConvertKit Discounts. They do provide a nice 30-day money back guarantee, however. Email Marketing Software For Nonprofits
Conclusion
When I initially wrote this ConvertKit inspection, it had been an up and coming email advertising support.
But three years later, ConvertKit Has firmly established itself as one of the significant players in the email marketing space.
Marketing automation is the Future for email. It can help you target your customers better, resulting in higher conversion and sales.
What ConvertKit does is create Advertising automations truly accessible to even non-techie men and women. Additionally, it provides you with a headache-free user experience.
While it Might Not Be the Most powerful email marketing software on the market, it does not aim to be. You need to know it is an email service that’s geared towards bloggers and other content creators.
Just Be Sure You know its Limits, and decide whether you’re ok with it.
If you are, then I highly Recommend you give ConvertKit an attempt.
Click here to Start Your Convertkit Free Trial. Email Marketing Software For Nonprofits
Click here to start your free trial of ConvertKit.